Timing Drills & Editing

What you'll learn: how to split your 26–27 minutes into planning, drafting, and editing phases, and how to practice pacing so you're never caught mid-sentence when time runs out.

Why timing is its own skill

Knowing how to write a good email doesn't automatically mean you can write one in 27 minutes. Timing under pressure is a separate skill that only improves with timed practice — not with untimed writing, however much of it you do.

The recommended time split

For a 27-minute task:

• 2 minutes — planning (see Lesson 3's 4-line method)
• 20 minutes — drafting the full response
• 5 minutes — self-edit pass (see Lesson 8's error checklist)

For the 26-minute Task 2, shift slightly: 2 minutes planning, 19 minutes drafting, 5 minutes editing. These aren't rigid — the point is to protect the planning and editing minutes, which are the first thing to disappear under pressure.

Worked example: a timing drill

Pick any past prompt. Set three visible timers or checkpoints: at 2 minutes, stop planning and start writing regardless of how "ready" your plan feels. At 22 minutes (27 − 5), stop drafting even mid-paragraph and move to editing. At 27 minutes, stop completely. Afterward, note where you were at each checkpoint — were you still planning at minute 4? Still drafting at minute 25? That gap tells you which phase to speed up next time.

Editing under a shrinking clock

If you reach the 5-minute mark and the response is unfinished, prioritize in this order:

1. Finish the current sentence with the simplest correct grammar, even if less elegant.
2. Make sure the closing line exists — an abrupt cutoff costs more than a slightly simple ending.
3. Only then, if time remains, do a light error check.

Timing checklist

• Did I finish planning by the 2-minute mark?
• Did I stop drafting with enough time left for editing?
• Did I complete a full response, including a closing line?
• Did I track where time actually went, not just how it felt?

Common mistakes

• Spending 8–10 minutes "perfecting" the opening paragraph, leaving no time for the rest.
• Treating the edit phase as optional and skipping straight from drafting to submission.
• Practicing writing untimed for weeks and only adding a timer right before the real test.

Recap

Timing is trainable through repeated, honest timed drills — protect a short planning phase and a short editing phase around your drafting time, and track where the clock actually goes so you can adjust before test day, not during it.